


Marlene's Guide to Fake Dating and Fixing Your Reputation

by Maddito_the_Bonito



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fake Dating, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Falling In Love, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Kissing, Like it seems like there is, No Smut, but there's not don't worry, james potter is in love with lily evans, lily evans loves him just as much
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-24
Updated: 2020-02-24
Packaged: 2021-02-27 18:54:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22870564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maddito_the_Bonito/pseuds/Maddito_the_Bonito
Summary: As soon as he had turned away, Lily slumped in her chair with her head in her hands. “Jeez. There’s no way I’m going to get a date again, now that Benji Fenwick has declared me as undesirable and as experienced as an eleven year old.”“That’s not true,” James said indignantly. “Benji’s a douchebag. And any real man wouldn’t care about stuff like that.”“Exactly!” Alice jumped in, suddenly eager. “You need to find someone who likes you for who you are, someone who's always been there for you, even if you’ve never noticed.”After Benjy Fenwick breaks up with Lily, she's lost hope of ever getting a date again. Her reputation is completely ruined—she's inexperienced and uptight. Thankfully, Lily's friends have the perfect plan: pretend to date James Potter and get some experience! It's a perfect plan to fix her reputation... right?
Relationships: Benjy Fenwick/Lily Evans Potter, James Potter/Lily Evans Potter
Comments: 7
Kudos: 25





	Marlene's Guide to Fake Dating and Fixing Your Reputation

“Just give her some time.”

“Some time? Alice, it’s been almost a week. Lily needs to get out of here.”

“Mar, come on. You know how hard this is.”

From inside her curtained four-poster bed, Lily could hear her best friends bickering in what they probably thought were quiet voices. She considered getting up, if only just to make them shut up. On second thought, that seemed like a lot of work. Marlene had been exaggerating - it had only been four days. Barely even half a week. And Lily felt as though she deserved at least a full one to wallow in her pain. 

Benji Fenwick. Tall, intelligent, Quidditch captain. He was charming to everyone he met, flirty in an effortless way that made Lily’s mouth go dry even before they started dating. Most people thought Benji was too good for Lily, herself included, but he had never cared about stuff like that.

What he did care about, apparently, was sex. More specifically, Lily’s lack of experience with it and her unwillingness to experience. Before Benji, Lily hadn’t even had her first kiss (James Potter in third year did not count, thank you very much). She had grown up very conservative, and although six years at school had made her loosen up a little bit. Regardless, she always brushed Benji’s hand away when it strayed too low, and preferred to spend an hour studying and joking around than making out. 

Benji had always been understanding, patient, and sweet. Too her face, anway, because four nights ago Lily had found him hooking up with a Ravenclaw prefect during breakfast. Enraged, Lily had stormed into the Great Hall in a panic. Benji ran after her, a perfectly scripted practice in hand. Long story short, Lily had lost it and started screaming at him. After a few choice phrases and insulted body parts, Lily had called him a whore and was prepared to sit down and try to maintain her composure.

However, Benji lost himself at her words and the reputation and professionalism he always tried so hard to maintain slipped away. He started yelling about how Lily was so naive, so inexperienced, and a prude. He announced that anything between them was over. Lily had been in her room ever since, too upset and embarrassed to show her face. Not only had Benji humiliated her, but she had thought that their relationship was real. 

Lily forced herself to stop remembering the past. She dragged her attention back to her friends. Grudgingly, Lily opened the curtains and sat up. The two girls fell silent and carefully climbed onto the bed. Alice wrinkled her button nose. “Gah, Lil, when was the last time you showered?”

Despite the horrible mood Lily was in, she felt her lips turn up in a smile. “Hey! I’m going through an ‘emotional time’.” Her words were accompanied by a roll of her eyes. 

“And you stink,” Marlene said matter of factly. “Sorry, Lil, but I don’t think that being broken up with gives you the right to forget about your basic bodily needs.”

Lily laughed then, and it sounded so foreign to her ears that it felt wrong. She hated that she didn’t know how to act now that she didn’t have Benji - her world shouldn’t revolve around a boy. But it did, and she didn’t know how to stop it. How was she supposed to act normal, now? As if reading her thoughts, Alice grabbed Lily’s arm.

“Dinner is in an hour. We thought you might like to join us.”

“No,” Marlene corrected. “You’re going to join us, whether you’d like to or not. You had your long weekend to mourn, and now it’s time to move on.”

Lily groaned, flopping back onto her pillow. “I know you’re right but… oh, come one. How am I supposed to face everyone? I was cheated on and Benji yelled to the whole school that I was inexperienced. I need to give it more time to cool down.”

“Lily, I’m really sorry about all of that,” Alice began politely, like she was afraid that Lily would start yelling at her.

Once again, Marlene interrupted. “Yeah, yeah, it blows, we get it. But staying holed up in here is only going to make it worse. There are rumors that you’ve gone back to the muggles, or that you’d slit your wrists and gone to live with Myrtle You’re absence is only adding fuel to the fire.”

“Look, Lily, I know it’s hard, but the best thing to do is just act normal. Fake it until you make it, right?”

There was no way she could argue her way out of it, and Lily didn’t want to waste time trying to. Besides, she knew they were right. She hauled herself out of bed and found her clothes. It was Sunday night, and tomorrow was the first day back to class after a three day weekend. Monday morning was going to be worse than usual. 

Marlene and Alice headed back down to the common room, although not before warning Lily that they’d be back soon to make sure she was making progress. After she had showered and put on clean clothes, Lily felt like a new woman. As a witch, she could simply magic away dirtiness. Theoretically, there was no need to shower. Still, there was nothing quite like a long hot shower. 

Lily was brushing her teeth and trying to decide if blow drying her hair was necessary when Alice and marlene came back. Alice beamed proudly at her, and Marlene looked shocked.

“Is this real life? Is Lily Evans acting like a functioning human being for once?”

Lily rolled her eyes, pretending to be annoyed. Her friends were just trying to look out for her. Had she mentioned yet that, once again, they were right? 

As they went downstairs to the common room, Lily focused all her attention on her friends, bracing herself for judgement. She couldn’t tell if people were staring at her and gossiping or if they were acting normal. There were stares, of course, and Lily did her best to ignore them. She laughed loudly at a joke Alice was telling.

Lily realized with some resignation that they were headed towards four loud sixth year boys. James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew. There were two extra chairs near them that Alice and Marlene reclaimed, and Lily sat reluctantly next to Remus on the couch. 

Although her friends had always shared Lily’s detestment of the Marauders, they had come back from summer holiday tall and unfairly attractive. Their previous pranks and flirting had suddenly charmed everyone, and teachers stopped handing out punishments. Even worse, it seemed that James Potter had completely forgotten about Lily. 

Even as they became friends with the boys, James always seemed to distance himself from Lily. He always seemed a bit ashamed, and Lily didn’t blame him one bit, especially now. Who wanted to be the guy who was in love with the inexperienced nerdy girl who Benji Fenwick had turned down?

It wasn’t that Lily had necessarily liked James' attention, in fact she had downright hated it at one point. But there was a part of her that liked the feeling of being liked, and an even smaller part of her even missed his focus on her - the constant flirting and grand gestures he always had. 

Anyway, she wasn’t going to let herself get too sucked into the Marauder’s trap, no matter how much they allegedly had changed. Alice and Marlene had fallen for it completely, and Lily could now say that the boys were her friends.

Ever stubborn, though, Lily refused to admit that it was more like best friends, or how much she enjoyed the time she spent with them. They always were teasing each other, joking around, but today Lily felt like light banter was the last thing she could handle

There was a few seconds of uncomfortable silence after Lily sat down. Finally, Sirius had leaned back form where he was perched over, trying to balance a card house. “No offence, Lils, but you look like shite.”

Lily felt relieved, and an annoying itch of fondness. Maybe normal was exactly what she needed. “Right back at ya, Sirius. Too bad you don’t have an excuse.”

It was a complete lie, and they all knew it. Like the rest of the Marauders Sirirus always managed to look effortlessly perfect. However, the point of their arguments wasn’t who was right, but rather who could think of the most insulting line and who got the last word. 

Remus spoke then, looking up from his book, and stopping Sirirus’ reply. “How are you feeling?”

Lily’s heart swooned, just a little bit. Typical Remus, with his kind eyes and soft words, regardless of what was going on. Lily hated them all, she really did. She just couldn't help but love them a little bit, too.

Peter wordlessly offered her a piece of his Honeydukes chocolate, which might not seem like much, but was a love confession coming from Peter. He only shared his food on special occasions. Sirius gasped in mock disbelief. “Pete, how many times did I ask you to give me a pice of chocolate? Are we even friends?”  
Peter sent a sharp glare towards Sirius, but winked at Lily in a way that made her giggle and drop a bit of chocolate from her mouth. That made Alice and Marlene laugh, and everything felt so stunningly normal that Lily wanted to sing. 

The only person who didn’t say anything was James. He had glanced in her direction when he first walked in, and then was focusing on levitating his want in midair. His silence stung Lily more than she wanted to admit. He didn’t have to say anything, obviously, and a year ago, Lily would have hated him if he did. Still, she had hoped that they could be friends now that their childhood idiocy was behind them. (Well, his childhood idiocy, that is).

“Anyway,” Sirius interrupted her thoughts. “As I was saying before, it doesn't make sense to use pumpkins. They’re about to decorate for Halloween, anway. We’ll just be making their job easier.”

Remus looked exasperated, and Lily knew this was a conversation they’d had more than once. “Sirius, they won’t be using pumpkin guts to decorate. Pumpkins have all of the qualities that we need for our launchers and -”

Knowing it was a prank and that she didn’t care, Lily quickly tuned them out and started discussing plans for the next Hogsmeade weekend with Alice and Marlene. Before long, it was time to head down for dinner. For their credit, none of her friends mentioned anything about the rumors or breakup. Still, Lily felt anxious and scared.

They had only made it halfway through their meal when Lily heard a familiar voice calling her name - her last name. “Evans! Hey, Evans, can we talk for a second?”

Lily’s heart raced. It was Benji. She stayed facing forward. “Go ahead.” The use of her last name stung more than she wanted to admit.

She could almost see him - scratching his neck, shifting uncomfortably. “Um, privately, maybe?” 

“Whatever you want to say to her you can say to us, too,” Marlene snapped. Her eyes were like daggers as she began angrily buttering a piece of her toast.

“Um… right. Well, anyway, Lil - Evans - I was thinking, you’re a really sweet girl. Us dating just wasn’t a good fit. How would you like to stay as friends? Maybe in a few years, once you’ve had a bit more experience, we can…”

With all the restraint she had, Lily turned around. “Screw you.”

Benji opened his mouth, as if he was about to say more, but Marlene slammed her knife onto the table, sending scrambled eggs through the air. Benji obviously got the message because he flinched and backed away. “Right, then. Well, I’ll see you around then, I guess. Let me know if you change your mind, Evans.”

As soon as he had turned away, Lily slumped in her chair with her head in her hands. “Jeez. There’s no way I’m going to get a date again, now that Benji Fenwick has declared me as undesirable and as experienced as an eleven year old.”

“That’s not true,” James said indignantly. “Benji’s a douchebag. And any real man wouldn’t care about stuff like that.”

“Exactly!” Alice jumped in, suddenly eager. “You need to find someone who likes you for who you are, someone who's always been there for you, even if you’ve never noticed.”

“I hate to be the voice of reason here,” Marlene said tactfully. “But Lily is right. Benji is one of the most popular guys in the school. Even if there is a ‘real man’ somewhere, they wouldn’t go against him.”

Lily groaned. “Great, so what am I supposed to do? No one will date me because I don’t have experience, but I can’t get experience because no one will date me. There’s literally no solution.”

“Well…” Marlene said thoughtfully. Lily missed the knowing smirk between her and Alice. “If you found someone who was more popular than Benji…”

Lily scoffed. “The only people who are more popular than him are the Marauders, and I don’t - oh.” Realization hit her. “Seriously? They’re not going to do that.”

“Of course they will! All you have to do is fake date James, and bam, your reputation will be fixed.”

Lily looked helplessly at James. James was in the process of choking on his breakfast in shock, but trying to do it silently. Lily sighed. “Marlene, I can’t ask him to do that. I don’t want him to do that. This is my own problem.” 

“And we’re friends! I’m sure James would be fine fake-dating you. Besides, it would be a perfect excuse next time Louise tries to ask him out. It’s a win-win.” Marlene said, obviously having spent a long time thinking about this.

“Seriously, Marls. I’m not doing that.” Lily said, annoyed. “James doesn't want to do that.”

“Are you sure about that?” Marlene asked. “James, would you fake date Lily to save her reputation and have an excuse to turn down annoying girls?”

James hesitated, taking a sip and clearing his throat before speaking. “Alright,” he said finally.

“No!” Lily burst out. “Not ‘alright’. That’s not going to happen. It’s just… weird. We’re friends.”

“So what? It’s not real. You just need the reputation and experience. It’s not going to change anything. James is willing to help you out, in fact, it’ll even help him.”

“No biggie?” Lily said desperately. “Why couldn’t it be someone else?”

This time, it was Alice who spoke. “Remus has a girlfriend, Sirius would be terrible for your reputation, and Peter has no experience either. James is single, liked by the general population, and has a healthy amount of experience.” 

Remus narrowed his eyes. “Why do you care so much about it being James?”

Lily was at a loss for words. “I - it’s just - he’s not - he’s - oh, alright, I don’t know, it’s James!”

The rest of the group exchanged smirks. (Except for Sirius who was trying to balance three forks over his orange juice glass, and Peter who did not seem to be catching on to Marlene’s plot). James looked a bit uncomfortable, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck and gazing into his plate. He slowly opened his mouth. “Look, Lily, I know we have, I don’t know, a bad history. I used to have very strong feelings for you and I know if often tried so hard to get you to like me that I wouldn’t take no for an answer. But I promise, I’ve changed. I realize that what I considered friendly flirting was more like harassment.”

“James,” Lily started, but he held up his hand.

“No, listen. I’ve grown up. I’m not going to try to take advantage of you because of this. Everything would be completely open and consensual. He paused. “I mean, I do understand. If you, um, don’t feel comfortable with me. 

“That’s not -” Lily faltered. If she said no, no matter what her excuse was, he would still believe that it was because of their past. She couldn’t tell the truth. She didn’t even know what the truth was. Maybe, subconsciously it was because of the past? Lily had spent so many years saying no to James Potter that saying yes seemed completely out of the question. And yet. “Okay,” she took a breath. “Let’s do it. And just for the record, that’s completely not what I think about you.”

James looked so relieved it made Lily’s heart ache. It was true, he had changed. So there was no reason not to fake date him. Still, there was something in Lily yelling “no! Abort! Don’t do this!” She ignored the voice. There was no reason not to. She turned to Marlene. “Alright, then. What are the steps to fake dating someone?”

Marlene smirked. “I’m glad you asked.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is probably going to be seven chapters. I have the first two written and I'm not editing anything so yeet sorry I guess. Thanks for reading and please leave kudos and bookmark it and all that jazz.


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